Yan is a PhD candidate in Quantitative Sciences at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, co-advised by Dr. Callie Kwartler and Dr. Arjun Bhattacharya. His research focuses on statistical modeling, genomic data analysis, and study design and power analysis, with current applications to vascular smooth muscle differentiation. Before his PhD, he worked as a research scientist in the Division of Biostatistics at NYU Langone Health, contributing to clinical study design and outcomes research. He earned a master’s degree in Biostatistics from New York University and a bachelor’s degree in Statistics from the University of Minnesota. He is an American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellow. Outside of research, Yan enjoys watching basketball and college football, as well as photography. His personal website is yanzhang.me.